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January 18, 2008 11:09 am
The world is not fair. Anyone who still harbors illusions about this fact of life can find a reality check in the art of Jasper Joffe. In his "Beauty Show" at London’s V22 Gallery, Joffe plans to create a Jim Crow-like social experiment in which he’ll categorize people according to one of the few sets of superficial criteria still unabashedly employed to block access into privileged positions: their looks. At the gallery’s opening tonight, Joffe will play the part of bouncer and separate the pretty from the ugly. But instead of banishing the less beautiful, he will kindly corral them into a separate room, where they will be welcome to wallow in their corporeal commonality, while the lookers mingle and mix in another off-limits area. Dressing up and slimming down won’t help aspiring pretty people, because as part of Joffe’s process, he’s been vetting photos sent by invitees before the opening of the show. He’s already made up an RSVP list, and like any good clipboard Nazi, he will hear no excuses and grant no exceptions. After the opening, Joffe’s flaunting of an attitude that he dubs "Fashism" will continue with one room in his show devoted to shots of seventies and eighties-era Vogue models, and another dedicated to portraits of the physically unfortunate and morally monstrous, including Hitler and Himmler (January 19 through February 24).
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